


The Legends Have Been Forgotten (If They Were Ever Known)

by LJF



Series: We Have Lost Our Humanity (Or Did They Lose Us?) [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Airbending & Airbenders, Animal Transformation, Animals, Badgermoles, Bending (Avatar), Dragons, Earthbending & Earthbenders, Firebending & Firebenders, Folklore, Gen, Genetics, Muteness, Not Compliant with Avatar Comics, Not Really Character Death, Not Shippy, Original Character Death(s), Origins, Seals (Animals), Selkies, Sky Bisons (Avatar), South, Temporary Character Death, Waterbending & Waterbenders, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:41:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26864557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LJF/pseuds/LJF
Summary: The dragons were the lucky ones. Their humans remembered them, remembered where they'd come from. They wererespected, treated as the wise elders they were. (At least, until Sozin tried to destroy them.)In contrast, the badgermoles and sky bison were considered naught but simple beasts-- admired, yes, but thought of as dumb and unintelligent. No one came tothemlooking for wisdom. (And then Sozin continued his sacriledge. Did the man's treachery know no bounds?)But at least they wereknown. Legends persist, telling how the great benders of old learnt at the paws of the masters.The seals, however, have been forgotten. Only the oldest of old legends remain to suggest that waterbending was learnt from any but the Moon herself.Perhaps it's because, unlike the others, the seals did not speak.
Relationships: Oma/Shu (Avatar), Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Sozin (Avatar)/Original Female Character(s)
Series: We Have Lost Our Humanity (Or Did They Lose Us?) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1992691
Comments: 10
Kudos: 50





	The Legends Have Been Forgotten (If They Were Ever Known)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vathara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vathara/gifts).



> For this one, I drew on various folklore, contemporary fiction, my own brain..... and Vathara's wonderful [Embers](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3591783).
> 
> Really, this is just an idea I've had rolling around in my brain for a while, and I just wanted to get it all down. It's a stand-alone story with zero connection to _any_ of my other Avatar-world stories.  
> UPDATE: This is now a series. Because apparently I can't just create a world-building infused one-shot without my brain coming up with a million and one ideas for it. Unlike my other series, I have no real outline, just a bunch of loose ideas, so we'll see how it goes.

The dragons were the ones best understood. Their humans remembered them, remembered where they'd come from. They were _respected_ , treated as the wise elders they were. They trained many of the great master firebenders, and some even chose a human companion.

But Sozin put an end to that. Not only did he doom one of them to a painful death, but he slew his own dragon-- the one who would have given her life for his. It came as no surprise when he began encouraging others to do the same.

So the great dragon elders came to an agreement. The days of comradery were over. They would teach, guide, instruct, yes, but never again would there be another Fang. (Another Kida.) The younglings were not permitted to approach humans, even those who might still be worthy of them. It was safer that way.

The sky bison were friends to their humans. Companions. But they had once been so much more. Teachers, sages, even elders. Somehow, though, most had forgotten this.

But Kida (headstrong, foolish Kida) had revealed the truth to Sozin. And so, he had come for them, too, in the end.

The badgermoles, as their element demands, are stubborn, uncompromising. Most prefer their own company to that of the humans. Persistent (or lucky) humans might be able to learn from them, but they've never _bonded_ with human benders the way the dragons or sky bison did. And, eventually, they suffered the same fate as the sky bison-- considered naught but dumb beasts, their wisdom considered the stuff of ancient legends.

Sozin knew. But he had never revealed to another soul all that he'd learnt from Kida, and so the secret had died with him.

The seals, however, have been forgotten. Only the oldest of old legends remain to suggest that waterbending was learnt from any but the Moon herself. No bender alive can claim to have seen one. (There are tigerseals and turtleseals, yes, but those are no more _true_ seals than dragonflies and dragonmoose are _dragons_.)

Sozin, in all his searching for the Avatar, also scoured the seas, trying to find even one of this lost breed. But he never did. (Those that remain, the badgermoles and the dragons and the bison, know that the seals are out there, somewhere in the vast blue underworld. But none can be certain of _where_.)

Ancient legends tell of the dragonwives-- dragons who shed their scales, took human forms, and married humans. It is always the dragons who are best remembered, even now, when most are gone.

The truth, of course, is both simpler and more complex than this.

All of the first benders once walked among humans, and their blood runs among us still.

Most dragons can only transform at dusk, stepping from their scales just as day turns to night. The metamorphosis lasts but one night and one day, after which they regain the wings which carry them aloft.

Some, though, choose to bind their life to a human's. In doing so, they become trapped, unable to return to their true forms until their human lover has left this life.

Which made Sozin's choice even crueler. After persuading Kida (beautiful, loving Kida) to turn her back on Fang (betraying her own kind) and _begging_ her to tie her life to his, he _slew_ her the very day she bore him the fiery son he had so desired. Dragon's blood remains in his line to this day-- the worst kind of betrayal.

(But it is one of Kida's blood, in the end, who restores the dragons' faith in humanity.)

For the badgermoles, firm, unchanging earth, the transformation is permanent. The choice is never made lightly-- once made, it cannot be unmade. Only in the rarest of rare cases will one give up their claws and step above ground.

The legends forget that, not only did they _learn_ from the creatures, Oma and Shu _were_ badgermoles, driven by curiosity to leave their burrows for the world of light-- only to be dragged into a war they could never understand.

It happens, on occasion, that an ignorant kit will accidentally transform. In such cases, the infant they become will be left on a human doorstep. The humans have forgotten why, but to this day, children found in this way are considered lucky, and will usually be adopted by whoever finds them. Most grow up to become powerful benders.

Even now, the ruler of Oma's city is always a foundling.

(It is a young blind kit who discovers a lost form of bending, one which has been forgotten nearly as long as the seals.)

The sky bison, free-spirited as the air they bend, could once transform at will, mingling with the humans as though they'd been born to it, but the art has been lost.

They were so adept at mimicking humans that even their own _descendants_ never suspected the truth-- the first air nomads did not _learn_ from their bison, they _were_ bison.

In times of great danger, it is not unusual for a human who carries the blood of a transformed ancestor to suddenly develop the ability themselves.

(The last of this once-great people does not suspect that, somewhere amongst the other bison who've been hidden away from Sozin's war, are people he once knew.)

The seals, however, have always been reclusive. It is rare for one of them to remove their pelt and walk on land, but it does happen. As long as they keep the coat close, they can always put it back on and return to the sea. On the night of the full moon, in places no human has ever laid eyes upon, entire pods might shed their skins to dance and bend among the ice and snow.

Of the unusual few who _do_ leave their pods for human company, most retain their soft, quiet nature. They become healers or artists, but, though their bending skills are great, they prefer to avoid displays of brute force-- though they'll do whatever it takes to protect their loved ones.

Unlike their peers among Fire or Earth, none of the seal-folk have their names recorded in the annals of history among the most powerful and legendary waterbenders of yore.

(This is not because they _can't_ fight. It is because they understand the power of the sea, its sheer magnitude. And they treat the Ocean with the reverence it is due.)

The other thing that sets the seals apart, of course, is that, while in human form, their voices cannot make a sound.

There is a story, known to many, though most do not consider it worthy of any note. It goes like this:

Many moons ago, only a few years after the Fire Nation captured the last of their waterbenders, a young woman was found shivering on the arctic tundra near the Southern Water Tribe, clad in nothing but a fur coat. Her blue eyes and dark features clearly identified her as being of Water Tribe descent, but none of them had ever seen her before. They took her in and called her Arnaq.

(Since the time they first split from the North, the Southern Tribe has always been welcoming to strangers. A decade previously, a girl from the North Pole had made her way to them, _alone_ , and they'd welcomed her with open arms. Recently, she had even married their chief.)

Arnaq was a gentle soul, patient and strong willed, and became the tribe's midwife. She married one of the tribesmen, and lived a quiet, uneventful life. One night, not long after her husband died, she disappeared. No one has seen her since. (They assume that, stricken with grief, she threw herself into the sea-- or perhaps she decided to brave the tundra once more.)

In the entire time Arnaq lived amongst the tribe, no one ever heard a single sound pass her lips.

Here are the parts of the story only one person ever knew:

Arnaq's daughter, a playful, spirited child, _adored_ her mother's coat. She always wanted to wear it, but every time she asked, her mother refused. The little girl would have tried it on secretly, when her mother wasn't around, but the woman never let it out of her sight.

The little girl had never met a waterbender-- the last one had been taken away long before she was born. Sometimes, though, on the nights of the full moon, she would sneak out to watch her mother dance in the moonlight, and she would see little waves come in and out, in time with her mother's movements. The child never asked, and the woman never gave any explanation. It was their little secret. (She tried to mimic the motions, but the water never moved to her will the way it did for her mother.)

On the night of her mother's disappearance, when the girl was already a young woman of courting age, her mother woke her up and kissed her goodbye before leaving their home. Understanding that the older woman was planning on leaving for good, the girl followed after her. It was midnight, and the moon was new, so she was the only one who saw as Arnaq pulled her beloved coat tightly around herself and dived into the ocean.

It was too dark to make out exactly what happened next, but a minute or two later, Arnaq's daughter saw a sleek form swimming away-- whatever it was, it certainly wasn't human.

There is a story, known to some, that matters a lot to the people it affected. It goes like this:

Six years before the Avatar's return, there was another Fire Nation raid on the Southern Tribe. They were after a waterbender.

The leader cornered Kya, the chief's wife, and _asked_ her to reveal the bender's name.

Katara's mother lied.

Afterwards, her cold, unmoving body, like all the others, was sailed out and gently lowered into the sea. And then she was gone.

The Chuje Islands, which lie on the South Sea somewhere between the South Pole and the Earth Kingdom, are widely believed to be unpopulated.

This is not entirely true.

On one of these islands lives a vast herd of sky bison. Another contains a hidden cache of dragon eggs. Many are occupied by badgermoles.

There are no humans, though.

Or, at least, there weren't.

One day, a few of the elder bison, sensing a disturbance in the air, flew down to the shore in time to see a woman, coughing and spluttering, drag herself out of the sea, a gray coat wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes widened as she saw them.

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She tried again. Her expression turned panicked. One of the bison approached, hoping to calm her, but the stranger only became more agitated. Little waves started hitting the sand, coming up to meet her feet. The bison retreated, but stayed where she could see them. Eventually, she walked towards them, and they allowed her to stroke their fur. One of them licked her face. She shivered, removing her wet coat. When she held it up, her face went white, and her eyes filled with tears.

Her lips formed a single word. _Mom._ But even as she fell to the ground, tears cascading down her cheeks, no noise escaped her throat.

**Author's Note:**

> In other words, none of the members of Team Avatar are fully human. (Toph is 100% badgermole. Aang is _mostly_ sky bison, but the air nomads probably had _some_ human blood from the other nations mixed in. Sokka and Katara's grandmother was a seal, which would make them 1/4th seal. And Zuko's great-grandmother was a dragon, so he's like 12.5% dragon (along with Azula).)  
> All of the transformed people (Toph, Bumi, Kida, Kya's mother, etc) are benders, but their descendants (with humans) only have as much likelihood of being benders as anyone else. The Air Nomads/sky bison are the exception to this, because they primarily had kids with other transformed-bison and all of the air nomads of Aang's time had almost 100% sky bison DNA. (See, I have a logical explanation for why _all_ of the Air Nomads were benders!)
> 
> (Apparently, in the Serpent's Pass episode, Sokka mentions something about an arctic seal. I've decided that, for the purposes of this fic, considering that we never see one of these on-screen, he's actually refering to tigerseals, which are native to the South Pole.)
> 
> Come find me on [tumblr](https://ljf613.tumblr.com/)!


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